Rescue
by Cap55
Summary: "I've always been fascinated with the human mind and will. Just how much can an individual take before they snap? I look forward to seeing how much your Captain can take before he breaks, but, in the mean time, take heed; if you try to trick me, I will kill him. If you try to rescue him, I will kill him. If you do not give me what I want, I will kill him. Work fast Avengers."


**Hello my lovely readers! I had this story idea sitting at the end of my story inspiration list and I decided it was time to get this one going because it will be a quick two or three chapter fiction. I hope you all enjoy this latest story and keep watching for updates on my other stories too! Thanks so much for taking the time to read - you guys are awesome!**

 **Rescue - Chapter 1**

"You know, I really don't appreciate getting shot at," Tony frowns as he barrel rolls through the air with laser fire whizzing past him.

"You may be in the wrong business, Stark," Natasha answers sarcastically, emptying the clips of her guns into the unrelenting wave of robots.

"Avengers! This is getting out of hand," Steve tries to get his team back on track. "We need to infiltrate that bunker and put this mission to bed."

"I would love to go to bed," Clint ducks and rolls behind a car for cover before popping up and firing an arrow straight into one of the massive laser cannons jutting up out of the ground, causing a large explosion. "It's exhausting being this awesome."

"Your fatigue would explain why you missed a cannon," Thor starts to dive to destroy the cannon, but stops short when it blows up on it's own.

" _I_ never miss," Clint winks and starts to take aim and a tank.

"SMASH!" Hulk shouts as he destroys the tank with a one-two punch before Clint even has a chance to loose his arrow.

"Come on, Hulk! I had that!" Clint gripes.

"SMASH!" Hulk shouts again, shooting Clint a glare.

"Alright, it's all yours buddy. Have at it. Quality smashing."

"I ain't seen nothin' quality 'bout you Avengers." A taunt catches all of the Avengers' attention across the battle field as a figure emerges from the concrete bunker.

"Double negative, Juggernaut," Tony adjusts his flight path for a collision course with the massive mutant. "Just because you're a bad guy doesn't mean you have to use bad grammar."

"Stark," Juggernaut laughs, sidestepping Tony's attack and grabbing his arm. He uses Tony's forward momentum and spins him around before launching him back from the direction he came from as he skips across the ground like a stone. "I was hoping you'd be here so I could pound your smart mouth into the ground." Juggernaut dips his head down, protected by his body armor, and charges at Tony. Arrows and bullets ricochet off of him, but he hardly notices the feeble attacks.

"Take him down, Avengers!" Steve orders, throwing his shield at the massive enemy, but it simply hits him and flies back to Steve's hand, hardly even leaving a dent. He catches his shield just in time as more robots swarm him.

Juggernaut continues on his rampage and is about to barrel through Tony when a blur of red and gray grabs the Iron Avenger, pulling him safely out of the way.

"Thanks, Point Break," Tony groans from where he lands on the ground. "I owe you one."

"Verily," Thor nods with a smirk as he offers a hand up to Tony to help him up.

Juggernaut isn't able to alter his course after he misses his target and crashes into a retaining wall. He immediately erupts from under the rubble, his anger boiling as he searches for his next target.

"Hulk Smash!" Hulk shouts as he leaps out of nowhere and throws a fist across Juggernauts face. The force of the hit sends out a shockwave through the entire battlefield, kicking up dirt and debris, but Juggernaut only skids back a few feet across the dirt. He wipes his fist across his bloody lip and smirks at Hulk. He returns the attack with one of his own, charging at the giant, green rage monster and hitting him dead on. The hit sends Hulk flying across the field.

"You ain't gonna be smashing no time soon, Pal," Juggernaut laughs. "Guess that makes _me_ the Strongest One there is."

"Did he seriously just chuck Hulk?" Clint shouts incredulously.

"He did," Natasha confirms, her face unflinching and unimpressed. "Looks like it's going to be up to us to take him down."

"Great," Clint grumbles.

Juggernaut is on a rampage now, throwing cars and tanks or whatever he can get his hands on and the Avengers are struggling to stay ahead of the aggressive attacks. Clint rolls out of the way just before a car nearly crushes him while he fires every arrow he has. Natasha is right behind him, unloading her stingers into the unrelenting onslaught of robots.

"Didn't take you for a robot kind of guy, Juggernaut," Steve comments as he somersaults to the ground when a car is thrown at him. He rolls up onto his feet, never wavering from his objective. He ducks as Juggernaut's massive fist swings at him. Steve rolls between his legs and leaps up onto his back. "You don't seem like you're the type who has two brain cells to rub together to build a sandwich let alone build a robot." Steve takes his shield and slams it down into one of the metal clips on Juggernaut's helmet before a colossal hand grabs Steve.

"Ha, my boss is in charge of the bots. That leaves me more time to break stuff," Juggernaut laughs and throws Steve into Tony as the Iron Avenger rockets toward them. The two Avengers collide into each other and tumble across the ground into a heap when Thor follows up the attack. He leaps at Juggernaut, slamming his hammer into the second clip on the helmet, shattering it.

Natasha and Clint both take aim and fire at the helmet, hitting it dead on. The hit knocks the helmet off of his head and it clangs to the ground.

"No!" Juggernaut shouts, knowing he's vulnerable without his helmet.

"SMASH!" Hulk roars as he swings at Juggernaut. Juggernaut quickly throws his arms up to block the fist, but the punch still sends him sailing across the ground. "Hulk strongest there is!"

Before Juggernaut has a chance to worry too much that he's being overwhelmed, more robots flood the scene. "You Avengers are done for," his arrogant smirk returns. "Go get 'em boys!"

The robots swarm the Avengers while Juggernaut returns to his rampage, throwing massive chunks of debris, boulders, and whatever he can get his hands on.

"We can't keep this up much longer!" Natasha shouts when a chunk of metal debris clips her arm, slicing through her suit.

"So negative, Widow," Tony teases as he fires a repulser blast into an attacking robot. "You need to get out of the 'glass is half empty' mentality."

"I'm getting lectured on looking at the glass as half full from the biggest pessimist on the team?" Natasha rolls her eyes at Tony.

"Less agreeing about glasses, more fighting," Steve grunts as Juggernaut launches a part of a tank at him and he raises his shield to block it. He strains and with all of his strength as he lifts his shield over his head, launching the debris up and over him.

"Pessimist?" Tony laughs, firing his repulsers at Juggernaut, ignoring Steve's attempt at rallying his team. "I prefer the term 'realist'. Besides, the title of eternal optimist was already taken by our Spangly leader. The glass is always half full, right Steve?"

"Shut up, Stark," Steve frowns as he gets buried under a pile of robots. With a show of strength, he pushes himself up, throwing them all off of him in all different directions. Steve seizes the break in the waves of robots and runs across the battlefield as he's pursued by the horde. He raises his hand up, waiting for his ride. "Focus on the fight and regroup, Avengers!"

"Sounds like someone is in a 'glass half empty' mood today," Tony teases and swoops down, grabbing Steve's arm and lifting him up and out of the mass of attacking robots that are nearly on top of him.

"Just thankful to have a glass," Steve smirks as he lands a boot firmly into the face of a robot that managed to grab onto his boot, sending it crashing to the ground below.

"See? Unending optimism," Tony teases.

The two Avengers jet over to the rest of their team as Thor lands after collecting Clint and Natasha and Hulk lands beside them with an earth shaking thud.

"Will someone please come up with a plan!" Clint shouts as he fires arrow after arrow as the robots redirect their attack to where the Avengers have gathered.

"Working on it," Steve scans the terrain, searching for viable tactical options.

"Work faster," Clint dodges an attack and fires another arrow.

"Widow: get to the bunker and find whatever it is that Hydra is hiding in there," Steve orders and Natasha darts across to the concrete building. "The rest of you: cover me!" he shouts and makes a break across the field.

"With pleasure!" Thor grins and raises his hammer high in the air before slamming it down into the ground, sending lighting through a group of robots. "Smashing robots is one of my favorite past times!"

"HULK SMASH!" Hulk roars and joins Thor is crushing robots.

"Alright already, Hulk. We get it: You smash." Tony rolls his eyes while he rapid fires repulsers into the mass of attacking metal monstrosities. "God, you're worse than Groot. At least he repeats three words all the time compared to your two."

"Where are we at with the bunker, Natasha?" Steve asks over the intercom, his voice shaking as his boots pound across the ground.

"I'm in," she reports. "Guards are down, but there's nothing in here. The building is empty."

"Half empty or totally empty?" Tony asks.

"There's got to be something," Clint fires into the mass of robots, ignoring Tony.

"There's nothing, Clint," Natasha scans the empty room. "We've been duped."

"Natasha, get out of there," Steve orders.

"So all of this was for nothing?" Natasha shouts as she exits the bunker.

"Pessimist," Tony comments.

"Shut up, Stark," Natasha snips.

"You know, that's the second time someone has told me to shut up today and I don't appreciate that…"

"It's not for nothing. It's never nothing with Hydra," Steve ignores the two's argument. "They wanted us here for a reason. We need to figure out why."

"Can we discuss this later?" Clint ducks behind Hulk as the constant wave of debris is raining down on them from Juggernaut. "All I care about right now is how we're going to get out of here. Where the hell is the plan, Cap?!"

"Right here!" Steve shouts followed by the deafening horn of a semi truck.

"Steve!" Tony shouts as he watches the Captain plow the truck through the horde of robots, destroying and collecting them on the front of the truck. "What the hell are you doing?"

Steve doesn't stop to heed Tony's question. He floors the gas, plowing through the battlefield toward Juggernaut. The colossal villain stands his ground, bracing himself for the impact with a smug grin as the truck bulldozes toward him, the two of them playing a dangerous game of chicken.

The truck hits Juggernaut and the crash is bone rattling as the grill and hood of the truck bows around the unmovable Villain. The front of the truck crumples in on itself like an accordion as the trailer lifts up off of the ground from the sudden stop in it's forward momentum. The thunderous noise of metal collapsing onto itself echoes through the air. Everything is in slow-motion as the trailer starts to flip over on itself and jack-knifes. The nose of the cab is pointed straight up and down while the back portion attached to the trailer is bowed over as it crashes to the ground, essentially landing upside down.

The Avengers all watch in silence as the dust starts to settle and metal creaks as it settles.

"Cap!" Tony is the first to react. He immediately blasts over to the truck, leaving the rest of the Avengers to deal with what's left of the army of robots. He lands on the side of the cab, ripping the door off of the driver's side to reveal Steve slumped forward in the driver's seat with blood dripping down the side of his face from under his helmet. His body is hanging from the driver's seat, the seatbelt keeping him firmly secured. "Steve, hey, wake up, Buddy," Tony lifts Steve's face in his hand and lightly slaps him to try and rouse him.

"Did I get 'em?" Steve groans. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah, I'd say you got him, but he got you too," Tony sighs in relief that Steve is aware enough to ask his usual stupid questions.

"Good," Steve breathes, drifting in and out.

"Whoa, time for us to go, Spangles," Tony catches himself as something starts rumbling beneath the truck. "Leave it to Captain America to fasten his seatbelt in the truck he's about the plow into an unmovable monster," Tony sighs as he cuts through the woven fabric of the belt. The last of the fibers give away and Tony catches Steve as he falls out of the cab now that there's nothing holding him in. "Come on, Spangles. It's time for us to get out of here."

No sooner do the words leave Tony's mouth does a giant hand burst from the metal wreckage. Tony stumbles back and both he and Steve fall from the cab to the ground.

"I'm gettin' real tired of you Avengers," Juggernaut sneers as he emerges from the pile of twisted metal. Blood is dripping from his nose and Tony can't help but feel a little satisfied at the sight.

"Not real thrilled to be hanging out with you either," Tony snips and blasts up to land a sharp uppercut to the Juggernaut's exposed face, but he grabs Tony and slams him into the wreckage of the truck. With his incredible strength, he wraps the huge, metal driveshaft of the semi-truck around Tony's arms. With his opponent effectively restrained, he turns his attention to Steve.

"You," He takes a step toward Steve as the Soldier pulls himself across the ground toward his shield. "Come 'ere. I got someone who'll be real excited to meet you."

"Steve!" Tony struggles to free himself as he watches Juggernaut reach out and wrap his massive hand around Steve's torso. Steve, still disoriented from the crash, grabs his shield as Juggernaut drags him up from the ground.

"Don't think I want to meet anyone you want to introduce me to," Steve frowns and raises his shield high above his head. He slams the edge of the shield down into Juggernaut's forearm as hard as he can. He cries out, dropping Steve to the ground. Steve groans as he lands hard and struggles to get back up.

"Dammit, get up, Steve!" Tony shouts. "Run!" Steve flounders and makes it up to his feet, but it's too late.

"You's real lucky my boss wants you alive 'cause otherwise I'd kill you for that," Juggernaut growls. Steve cries out when the much larger man swings at him, knocking him off of his feet with one sweep of his massive arm. He tumbles across the ground and before he even knows what happened, Juggernaut grabs him by the arm and holds him up in the air in front of him. "You'd better start cooperating 'cause I could just as easy crush you right now," Juggernaut growls, but the monstrous man flinches when a repulser blast hits him square in the face.

Juggernaut turns to where he left Stark only to see smoke rising from the repulser on Tony's palm that he was just barely able to raise with his arms restrained by the metal rod. Tony grits his teeth as he threatens, "I swear to God, if you hurt him, I'll…"

"You'll what?" Juggernaut interrupts and glares at Tony. He turns to face Tony and takes a few steps closer as he grabs Steve around his torso again. "You know I get real tense when people threaten me," he smiles at the Inventor and starts to squeeze his fist around Steve's midsection. The Super Soldier stifles a shout and grits his teeth as pushes against the massive fingers tightening around his ribcage.

"Stop!" Tony shouts and fires his repulser again with his one free hand.

Juggernaut raises his free arm to block the attack. With Steve still in his grip in his other hand, he continues to squeeze harder and Steve suddenly cries out. "Oh, that was a rib popping. That musta hurt. You ever had a rib slowly snapped in half?" he laughs he watches Tony fight to free himself.

"You bastard," Tony growls.

It's becoming nearly impossible for Steve to expand his chest at all to breathe with the man's fist wrapping tighter and tighter around him like a boa constrictor. He's trying hard to free himself and every instinct in him is crying out for him to stay awake and aware, but the pull of sleep is dragging him down. His vision starts to darken around the edges and his arms feel heavy and weak as he continues to try to push the ever tightening fingers off of him. He can't fight it anymore and his arms drop and his head falls back. Tony watches helplessly as Steve's body goes loose in Juggernaut's fist.

"You're killing him! Stop! Stop!" Tony shouts.

"Juggernaut!" a voice shouts over the PA of a jet. The hope that help has arrived swells up in Tony's chest, but quickly drains away when he looks up to see Dr. Faustus in the cockpit.

'Shit," Tony grumbles under his breath.

"I told you I wanted him alive,"Faustus scolds.

"Yeah, yeah," Juggernaut frowns. "Don't worry. He's alive." He drops Steve roughly to the ground and the Super Soldier coughs up blood and gasps for air now that his lungs are finally able to expand. A stream of red streaks down out of the corner of Steve's mouth, telling Tony that he very likely has a punctured lung.

"Steve!" Tony shouts as concern floods him. Steve groans, but doesn't move from where he landed on the ground. "Hey, speak to me, Spangles!"

"Stop messing around and get him in the jet," Faustus orders and lands as the ramp at the back of the jet slowly opens.

"Keep your filthy hands off of him," Tony fights to escape so he can kick the crap out of the man in front of him as he grabs Steve and throws his listless body over his shoulder and hauls him into the awaiting jet.

"If you want your Captain back, wait for my instruction, Avengers. I hope you are good at following directions. His life will depend on it.," Faustus gloats over the PA as the jet starts to lift up off the ground.

"Steve!" Tony shouts as he's finally able to free his arm from the driveshaft, but the jet is already racing off. "No!"

* * *

Thrust into consciousness by a coughing fit, Steve shifts onto his side as he tastes blood in the back of his throat. The coughing subsides and awareness starts to slowly come back to him. The first thing that hits him is how hot it is. He is laying on his right side and every part of him is sweating. He starts to open his eyes, but quickly finds that was a mistake. The first signs of light send his head spinning and throbbing. Quickly, he squeezes his eyes shut and waits for his world to stop tipping.

Using his other senses, Steve tries to piece together where he is. He can feel warm, sandy ground under the side of his face and a wall that his back is pressed up against. He shifts a little and immediately regrets it. His side starts to throb with a stabbing pain and Steve yelps, wincing as his body tenses. He slowly starts to relax and breathe through the pain. He drags his tongue over his dry lips and just lays there for a moment before he starts to drift into blissful unconsciousness again. He should probably be more concerned about where he is and what happened, but the draw of sleep is too much for him to fight.

A loud banging on the side of the metal wall startles him from his stupor and he jerks awake, jarring his sore body again.

A slot in the wall slides open and a bottle is dropped in. "Water," an apathetic voice announces and the slot slides closed again.

Steve gingerly works himself onto his knees, biting back a groan as his body protests. Sand is sticking to his sweaty face and it's itchy, but he ignores it, taking a moment to let himself settle before he works his way over to the water. He grabs the bottle and slowly adjusts himself to a sitting position, leaning his back against the warm, metal wall. He cracks the seal on the water bottle and takes a long drink, unaware of how thirsty he was until the cool, wet water touches his lips.

He leans his head back against the wall, sweat and water dripping down his neck from his face, and just concentrates on breathing. Carefully, he slowly blinks his eyes open and squints against the light so he can scan the room. His vision is a little blurry, but he can see that it's a small space, only about 7x7'. It's just tall enough that he could sit up straight if he was physically able to right now, but that's about it. There are a few, small holes in the top of the metal roof that let some light in, but other than that it's a small, rusted, metal, hot box. There's no breeze, no air circulation, nothing. Just stagnant, blazingly hot air.

"Well, this sucks," Steve mumbles to himself and glances down at his water bottle that is now nearly half empty…or half full, depending on how you look at it he supposes. Stupid Tony.

He's about to try and take off his body armor to try to cool down when two men slide the roof off of the box, letting in a much needed breath of fresh air. Steve is nearly lost in relief at the refreshing, warm breeze, but suddenly realizes that two men have jumped into the box. Steve pushes himself up to his feet as quickly as he can, using the wall heavily for support.

"Hands behind your back," the one guard orders and Steve just stares rebelliously at him, unmoving. "I said, ' _hands behind your back_.'"

"Who are you?" Steve remains undaunted.

"If you don't comply, we will force you," the second man pulls out a stun baton and it sparks out in front of him.

"Go ahead and try," Steve glares.

* * *

"Faustus wanted us there at that bunker," Bruce stares at the screen, deep in thought with his arms crossed against his chest. "SHIELD just confirmed that the anonymous tip was sent from Hydra which means that Faustus must be involved with his old team again. It's the only thing that makes sense. He knew that Steve wouldn't pass up an opportunity to take Hydra down a notch. He created an opportunity to lure him out and take him."

"That's the how, but the real question is 'why?'" Clint frowns.

"Who knows. I studied Faustus' work and the file SHIELD has on him. He doesn't exactly have a sparkling relationship with Cap," Bruce replies.

"Anything?" Natasha asks Tony as she paces across the floor.

"For the billionth time, no," Tony sighs. "I will tell you as soon as I find something."

"So we know Faustus set up the fake Hydra base to snatch Steve. It's been hours since he took him and we haven't heard anything. Why would he take him and then not contact us?" Clint questions.

"He wouldn't," Bruce crosses his arms and stares at the screen of the Tower's communications system, silently willing it to go off. "He's toying with us. Biding his time. Faustus is all about the psychological game. He wants us to wait."

"What else do we know about this 'Faustus'?" Thor asks.

"Dr. Faustus, AKA Johann Fennhoff," Tony pulls up the SHIELD file on Faustus and projects it up in front of the Avengers. "Take it way, JARVIS."

"Johann Fennhoff, code name Dr. Faustus after the Renaissance play, "The tragical History of Doctor Faustus," where a man sells his soul to a devil named Mephistophiles to gain all knowledge.

Fennhoff was born in Vienna, Austria, and proclaims he is the 'Master of Men's Minds' and is well known for use of his morally questionable psychological methods in combat. His manipulation of choice is to put his victims into positions where they are essentially forced into such psychological turmoil and torture that they ultimately choose to end their own lives rather than continue on in their suffering."

"Pleasant," Natasha stares at the picture of Faustus with a look that would send grown men screaming for the hills.

"Faustus is known to have ties to neo-Nazi groups, Red Skull, Dr. Zola, and Hydra"

"So this guy has no powers?" Clint crosses his arms. "He's just a regular guy? Why are we not tracking down Cap and busting this loser?"

"Don't underestimate Faustus. He's not a superhuman, but he's not harmless either," Bruce frowns. "He nearly killed Steve once by inducing severe nightmares and hallucinations and nearly driving him insane. Steve told me about him a while back. This guy is trouble."

"So what do we do?" Natasha asks.

"We wait for him to contact us. That's all we can do," Bruce sighs.

Just as the team is about to go stir crazy from waiting, the communications screen lights up.

"JARVIS, project incoming message on the screen," Tony orders and a holographic screen appears in front of them.

"Good morning, Avengers," Faustus greets. "Allow me to introduce myself…"

"We know who you are, Faustus," Bruce interrupts. "Where's Captain America?"

Faustus chuckles. "My reputation precedes me. Good. That means you know I mean business."

"Before you say another word, we want proof that Captain America is still alive," Tony demands.

"No small talk. I like that," Faustus smiles. "Very well."

He nods to someone off camera and another feed pops up next to the feed showing Faustus. The second feed shows Steve sitting in the metal box, his back resting against the back wall with his head tipped back while sweat drips down his neck from under his helmet.

"Well, this sucks," Steve grumbles, unaware of the video feed.

"Understatement, Rogers," Tony huffs under his breath.

"Where is he?" Clint shouts.

"Where he is will remain a mystery to you until I get what I want and what I want is the Super Soldier Serum," Faustus answers coldly.

"Is that all?" Tony laughs. "You and everyone else in the world wants the Serum, but we don't have it. No one does."

"Do not lie to me. I know you have it or at least some form of it," Faustus demands angrily, the first crack of anger showing through his calm exterior. "I know Dr. Banner experimented with the Serum for years as it is responsible for his current…condition. Your government has never stopped trying to recreate the Serum since Captain America was created in World War II. I have been researching the various test subjects through the years. There was a group of soldiers that were experimented on in World War II after Captain America was lost, followed by Union Jack, Sentry, Protocide. All products of a variation of the Super Soldier Serum."

"And, if you did your research, most of those subjects didn't have a very good run and there is no scientific reasoning behind the subjects that were deemed successful. For lack of a better word, they were a fluke," Tony argues. "You're asking us to give you something that doesn't exist."

"For your friend's sake, you had better find a way to make it exist," Faustus returns to his calm demeanor and directs the Avenger's attention to the second feed again.

The feed shows two men jumping into the box as Steve struggles to stand.

"Hands behind your back," the first man orders and Steve just stares him down defiantly.

"Don't be an idiot, Spangles," Tony mumbles to himself as he watches helplessly as Steve stands and tries to stand up to two men he'd normally be able to take down blindfolded with both hands behind his back.

"I said, 'put your hands behind your back,'" the man orders again.

"Who are you?" Steve demands.

"If you don't don't comply we will force you," the second man threatens as he pulls out a stun baton.

"Go ahead and try," Steve glares.

The two men glance at each other and back to Steve, but he still doesn't move. The first man with the stun baton attacks first, jamming the baton into Steve's stomach, bringing him to his knees. Steve throws an elbow into his face, causing him to drop the baton out of his hand. Quickly, Steve grabs the baton and hits the second man across the face with it.

"Give 'em hell, Rogers," Clint watches hopefully.

"Contain him," Faustus orders as Steve struggles to pull himself up out of the box. He's nearly out when another guard rushes over and sends a boot straight to the side of Steve's head, sending him crashing back into the box. "Escape is not an option," Faustus smiles as the third guard jumps in the box and rolls Steve over onto his stomach as he listlessly tries to come to his senses. He restrains Steve's hands behind his back with a heavy set of metal restraints.

"When we find you, you son-of-a..," Tony growls.

"The serum is the only thing that will free your friend, Avengers," Faustus interrupts smugly. "Not idle threats. Bring me the Serum in the next 24 hours for I will be forced to take matters into my own hands. To make sure you don't drag your feet, I've taken the liberty of projecting the extreme temperatures your Captain is currently being subjected to," an unbelievable temperature of 140 degrees fahrenheit is projected to the side of the screen. "as well as a countdown clock for your convenience. This 20 hour countdown is approximately how long the Captain has to live before…well, you'll see what I mean in a moment."

Again, he directs their attention to the second feed where the guard is kneeling over Steve. He roughly shifts him onto his side, but Steve kicks the man of of him. Another guard jumps in and helps to restrain him while the first guard slides a needle attached to a medical line into Steve's neck. He securely tapes the needle to Steve's exposed neck before he exits the box and attaches the tube to a pump. They replace the heavy metal lid and flip the pump on and the Avengers watch as the tube fills with red blood from Steve's neck as it travels through the line and up out of the box to the pump.

"What the hell is that?" Natasha demands.

"They're draining his blood," Bruce watches, dumbfounded.

"This pump will steadily extract the Captains blood over the next 24 hours. If you do not get me the serum as I have asked, I will be forced to take it. It will require more effort and time on my part with a small chance of failure, but I am confident that my team can successfully extract the serum directly from the Captain's blood. Even if it means having to take _all_ of it."

"There's no way to extract the serum from Steve's blood," Bruce slams his fist down on the console, a flush of green coming to his skin. "Do you know how many people have tried? There's absolutely no way. You're killing him for nothing."

"Not for nothing," Faustus smiles again. "At the very least it is a grand psychological experiment both on the Captain and yourselves. I've always been fascinated by the human mind and will. Just how much can an individual take before they snap? I look forward to seeing how much your Captain can take before he breaks, but, in the meantime, take heed; if you try to trick me, I will kill him. If you try to rescue him, I will kill him. If you do not give me what I want, I will kill him. Work fast, Avengers, if you value his life."

The screen with Faustus blinks out and the Avengers are just left with the image of Steve, exhausted, injured and restrained, as they literally watch the life leave him.


End file.
